From father's funeral to Capitol, lawmaker recounts 'surreal' day

Senator raced from funeral to stand up for women in Senate

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte is comforted Tuesday by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, after rushing back to the Senate.

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte is comforted Tuesday by Sen. Royce West,...

AUSTIN - The decisive moment came as she looked at photos of her dad after his funeral. There he was, standing to be recognized on the floor of the Texas Senate last month, when she was governor for a day.

For Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, seeing that image was the turning point of her "surreal" Tuesday.

At that moment, she decided to leave her grieving family, which also lost a grandchild recently, to rush back to the Senate and join the Democrats' filibuster of abortion legislation.

"I thought, 'My Daddy's stood up for me, and I need to go to Austin and stand up for women.' And that's what happened," Van de Putte said.

Resting and regrouping ahead of Monday's second special session, the senator reflected on the day that catapulted her into a national spotlight for her role in supporting the filibuster by Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth.

They and Democratic colleagues extended discussion long enough to kill the legislation with the midnight clock on the final day of the first special session.

"Senator Van de Putte's courage in the face of personal hardship and political adversity was a tremendous inspiration for me and my colleagues," Davis said in a Thursday statement. "By calling on the lieutenant governor to recognize women's voices, she summed up the fight to protect women's constitutional rights and energized our effort. I am so proud to call her my friend."

Van de Putte's father, Daniel San Miguel Jr., died June 21 in a car crash. As the eldest of his five children, Van de Putte took charge of the situation while immersed in the special session.

Translator

To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.

She broke away from her Senate role for Monday's visitation in San Antonio and Tuesday afternoon's Mass and burial in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Then the family retreated to a private reception to reminisce about San Miguel and Van de Putte's grandson, Rex, who died suddenly May 7.

Image of her father

The gathering had a festive touch, acknowledging San Miguel's love for baseball.

"We had hot dogs and peanuts and chili and popcorn. We sang 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,' " she said, recalling it as a time of relief following "two horrendous family losses."

Monitoring the filibuster from afar, Van de Putte said she realized Davis' effort was in jeopardy when Republicans cited her for two rule violations. A third would halt the filibuster.

Then came the image of her dad in the Senate on her big day, May 4.

"I had acknowledged him and he stood up. Every­body was sitting, but Dad was standing. He's clapping and blowing kisses at me. Everybody is looking toward him. You could see he's so proud," Van de Putte said.

When she dashed backed to the Capitol on Tuesday, she walked into one of the Senate's most dramatic nights.

The gallery was packed, and senators on both sides of the abortion issue were fighting tooth and nail for their causes.

The moment was "surreal, very surreal," she said. "I was probably at the lowest point in my life."

'Pure frustration'

On the floor, Van de Putte said her goal was to boost Davis' confidence while GOP senators tried to cut the filibuster short.

"Little did I know I'd be playing a key role in the parliamentary inquiries" that kept the filibuster alive, she said.

Van de Putte's clash with the Senate's presiding officer, when she alleged she was slighted as a woman over male senators, figured in the gallery's disruption that prevented a timely vote before midnight.

Being overlooked was "pure frustration. (I was) raising my hand, calling out, 'Mr. President,' and being ignored and passed over. … The press table heard me, the gallery heard me. I was jumping up and down," Van de Putte said. "I hit my light (asking to speak) before my Republican male colleagues, and I was just totally ignored and that was where my statement came from."

Her statement, which became a YouTube sensation, was: "At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over the male colleagues in the room?"

The remark in the filibuster's final 15 minutes ignited the gallery crowd, which began a sustained outburst that drowned out floor discussions.

"The very people that are most affected by this (debate) were thrown to the wayside, and that's women. Women voices were not being heard," Van de Putte said, adding that she drew strength from the Capitol crowd of several thousand.

Nowhere to hide

Even so, she knows the odds are against another defeat of the GOP-backed abortion measure.

"They have the numbers," she said.

"But what they cannot erase is that this is in full view of the public. They can no longer hide," she said of the Republicans. "It's on the Internet. And when hundreds of thousands of people were watching at 2 a.m., and thousands of people were at the Capitol, they can't work in a vacuum any longer. They've awoken something," she said.